Modern vehicles are equipped with sophisticated electronic devices such as multimedia entertainment systems, GPS navigation systems, internet access devices, and the like. This invention is directed to a display method and apparatus for displaying traffic information which is typically implemented in such vehicle electronic devices, although the present invention is not limited to the automobile use. This invention can also be applied to a hand-held navigation system, remote terminal, PDA (personal digital assistant), etc. However, for the convenience of explanation, the present invention will be made with respect to vehicle navigation system.
When driving an automobile, a user wants to reach the destination quickly and smoothly. However, because of various traffic incidents, such as traffic jams, accidents, construction, etc., it is sometimes difficult to enjoy smooth driving to the destination. Thus, when driving an automobile to the destination guided by a vehicle navigation system, a user wants to know whether there are any traffic incident that affects his/her travel to the destination. If it is possible to know that there is such a traffic incident and its degree of seriousness in advance, the user can change the route or spend a time at a convenient place to avoid such a traffic incident.
Today, there is a radio service which provides traffic information to members through a wireless transmission or a telephone network. If a user is a member of such a service, she is able to receive the ongoing traffic information through the vehicle navigation system, portable navigation device, or the like, if such a device has a radio transmitter or an Internet access capability. For example, such traffic information (depicted by traffic incident icons) will be combined with a map image of an area where the user is currently located.
Especially, when receiving such information by the vehicle navigation system and displaying the traffic information on the navigation screen, it is important that the driver is not distracted when paying attention to the display. To maintain the safe driving, it is necessary that the driver can easily and quickly grasp the important traffic information at a glance. In other words, the traffic incident information that will not affect the travel to the destination should not be displayed in the same manner as the important traffic information.
Thus, there is a need of a new and efficient way to evaluate the traffic information in combination with the specific route to the destination particular to a user. There is a need of a new display method and apparatus for prioritizing the traffic incident information and displaying the resultant traffic information on the navigation system for enabling the user to grasp the information with a short glance of the display. Such an order of priority should be directly associated with the user's particular route to the destination.